


You and the Princess?

by Carmailo



Series: Exercise Pieces [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: no hate me for shallura stuff pls, one-sided klance pining - Freeform, one-sided shallura pining - Freeform, read the tags for spoilers lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 02:52:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11327160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmailo/pseuds/Carmailo
Summary: When Keith reveals to Lance that he and the princess are dating, the paladin seems to react in and entirely un-Lance-like way.Fake kallura... sorry if you were looking for that! I hope it's not too misleading now that it's been tagged...





	You and the Princess?

**Author's Note:**

> MENTIONED SHALLURA, ONE SIDED PINING.

“What?”

It was a simple question, yet it could be interpreted in so many different ways.

 _What did you say? What do you mean? What are you talking about?_ The list goes on and on.

Keith is not sure which one Lance means, so he stays quiet.

“You- you and the princess?”

“...yeah.”

Lance sits back, resting the wrench on his leg. He’s been fixing electronics with Pidge and Hunk, an area he was surprisingly skilled in. _”I have five siblings, a nephew, a niece, my abuelos, and my parents. You pick things up,”_ he’d dismissed.

“Well…” Lance looks around, as though his next words are lying among the scattered wires and equipment on the floor. “Good for you?” he leans back into the console, cursing when it sparks.

“That’s it?” Keith asks, rather disappointed. He was expecting a more dramatic response.

“What d’ya mean, ‘that’s it’?” Lance replies, grunting as he turns a bolt.

“I was expecting… I dunno. For you to get mad, or something?”

“Well, you got ‘or something’.” Lance pulls his head out from under the panel, “happy?” he raises a brow.

“Well-”

“It’d be weird to say no, Keith.” Lance interrupts.

“Yeah. Okay.” Keith gets up. “I’ll… go… train, or whatever.”

“I couldn’t care less.” Lance mutters, sifting through a pile of screws and bolts. He disappears back into the console before Keith can retort.

The paladin storms away, leaving Lance to stew in his own quiet frustration.

* * *

Lance was not one to deem things “unfair”. He understood that fairness did not decide how things played out in the end. If his brother got a bigger helping at dinner, it wasn’t about his parents picking favourites or being unfair, it was just how it worked; the bigger sibling was going to eat more, so he got a larger helping, whether it was intended by the server or not. It just happened.

On occasion, however, Lance liked to blame the fairness of the universe. Losing both Keith and Allura to being engaged in relationships, at the same time, seemed rather unfair to him. It was only worse because they were dating one another.

It was out of his control, so it was easier to blame fate and say it was “unfair”.

It wasn’t like he was in love with either of them, but he really did feel a tie of non-platonic affection to both teammates. Nothing too much worse than a standard school-child crush, but just enough so that it tugged on his heart irrationally, only to leave him feeling heartbroken. 

The bolt he’s trying to hold in place slips from between his fingers and he growls in anger. He tries again, but the screwdriver lands weird and sends the screw out of place again. Frustration only growing, Lance tries again. This time, the bolt goes in funny, lopsided and ruining all the time Lance had put in. He lets out a yell, now, and pulls himself out of the console. His head slams on it on the way out, and he he can taste blood on his tongue. Out of habit, he curses in Spanish.

Falling backward, Lance stares up at the ceiling of the hanger he’s in.

His head’s probably bleeding, the only two people he’d allowed himself to develop proper, steadfast feelings for are slipping from under his fingers, he’s in space, he’s barely seventeen and he’s stranded in space, he misses his mom, and _goddammit,_ he misses the damn rain.

Is it so much to ask to have one little, insignificant thing go right? Like the damn screw going into it’s spot correctly?

Lance yells in frustration again, kicking the ground with his heel. He wants to punch something. No, someone. Lance wants to punch someone. Keith. Lance wants to punch Keith. Goddammit, he wants to punch Keith for making him like him, for making him put down his guard, for being able to win over Allura where Lance’s many attempts had failed.

Staggering only slightly, Lance gets to his feet. He shoves his hair out of his face, even though it’s only so long and not really in the way. His movements are ineffective and do nothing, but he’s too upset to care. Lifting his bayard from the ground where he’d discarded it, Lance makes his way to the training deck. Sure enough, Keith it there, smashing robots like no tomorrow. He seems troubled, and Lance would like nothing more than to make him feel worse about whatever it is that bothers him.

“Mullet! Let’s go, good old-fashioned fistfight.” Lance challenges.

“Why?” Keith asks, but he still calls off the simulator a moment later, still throws his bayard to the side and gets into fighting position.

Lance copies the other paladin, casting aside his bayard and moving into the stance his elder sister had taught him.

 _Strike first, Lance. Never pause and wonder if you’re being ethical. Just see the opportunity, aim, and fire._ That _is how you win._

Keith is not going to throw first. Lance already knows that much. He’s tired and tends to overthink in training. His instincts kick in when he realizes there’s an imminent threat.

So, Lance punches first. He misses on purpose, goes too far left and pushes Keith to the right before kicking out his left leg and turning in a circle. Lance catches the red paladin in the back using his calf. His legs were not bent properly and he hadn’t accounted for the space between the two of them. Next time he’d get him properly.

Keith stumbles forward a few steps before turning back and hunching down further. He was already adapting to Lance’s fighting style, knowing that he’d fake in an attempt to get in hits elsewhere. Lance still had the advantage; he had the analytical thinking of a boxer. Silently, he thanks Isabel for the surprise attacks he’d been subjected to as a child.

Keith takes his first punch, aiming an undercut at Lance’s chin before twisting into a straight punch to the face within a single throw. Lance twists away, but soon, Keith is copying him in sending a kick to his back. The blue paladin grips onto Keith’s leg, and with a tug, both sides fall to the ground.

They grip at whatever they can. Shoulders, shirts, ankles - it’s all fair game. It’s a struggle to top the other and gain power, one that has both boys rolling across the ground.

Keith grips Lance’s shoulders and straddles his waist, gaining the upper hand. “Lance, calm down-” Lance grabs Keith’s wrists and pushes them above his head, making the other boy lose his balance and flip their positions.

Pushing both of Keith’s wrists into his hand, Lance winds up for a punch, arm bending behind his head. He smiles, aggression turning the normally kind gesture frightening. Keith, kicking wildly, tries to flip the two of them again, eyes searching frantically for a way out. Giving in to Lance’s strength and weight, he squeezes his eyes shut and turns his head away, preparing for impact.

It doesn’t come.

“Goddammit,” Lance mumbles, fist falling limply on Keith’s chest.

“Wait, what?” Keith blinks in confusion.

Lance drops his head to Keith’s chest. “Nevermind. Sorry if I hurt you.” he says, getting to his feet. After a moment’s hesitation, he holds out his hand.

Keith watches as Lance tucks his other hand into his pocket and looks away nonchalantly. “Well?” he says, shifting his gaze to Keith, “aren’t you going to get up?”

Keith reaches out for the hand, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet. Lance heads away, leaning over to grab his jacket and turning away in a single, fluid swoop. “Lance- wait,” Keith calls, jogging over to where the paladin stands. He lifts his own jacket from the ground. “Are you mad at me?”

Lance stops, turning his head to look at Keith. His eyes still avert from the other’s face. “Nooo… why?” he asks, turning back toward the doors as they leave the training deck.

“Is this about me and Allura?”

“Allura and I,” Lance corrects, incorrectly, shooting Keith a sidelong glance, “and nope. I’m not mad.”

“Then what are you?”

“Nothing?” Lance asks, the word meaning more than just how he was feeling _about_ Allura and Keith, but rather _what_ the two of them were accidentally leading him to feel as.

“Lance,” Keith says, and it stops Lance in his tracks, because the smaller boy sounds very serious. “Allura and I aren’t actually dating.”

Lance’s brows knit. “What? Then why- _what?_ ”

“I… it was Allura’s idea? She wanted to see how you’d react.” Keith says simply.

“Why?”

“To try and figure you out, or something. I think she thinks it’ll be better for the team if she knows how you’d react to mental duress.”

“No, I get _that_. But why using you two, specifically?”

“Because she said that you and I are rivals,” Keith twiddles his fingers nervously, biting his lip. Lance has never seen the other paladin fidget, and is taken aback, “and that you like her, so if _I_ was dating her, it’d make you most upset?”

Lance blinks. Once, twice. And _laughs_.

“Are you… do you think this is funny?” Keith asks, surprised.

“No- I… Relief? Relieved, I guess.” Lance says, a smile easily painting his face.

“Why would you be _relieved?_ ” Keith asks, brow creasing in confusion.

“Because I-” Lance cuts himself off.

While he preferred Keith over Allura - only because the princess seemed to have eyes for Shiro that were reciprocated in the black paladin - he wasn’t ready to just blurt a confession out.

“Lance, say it,” Keith urges.

“Say what?”

“Say what you were gonna say!” Keith says, childishly crossing his arms.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Ha, I win! Tell me, loser.” Keith demands, the insult charged without malice.

“Dammit,” Lance says, tugging on his jacket, “fine.”

“Really?” Keith’s eyes brighten.

“No.”

“Don’t you want to, though?”

“Mm… nope,” Lance muses. Keith groans.

“You suck.”

“And you swallow,” Lance fires back easily.

The two begin walking again, side by side now, wearing easy smiles. “Walked into that one.” Lance supplies when Keith remains silent.

“Yeah, I did.” he says, still smiling.

They find themselves on the observatory deck. Stars glint beyond the panes of window, blinking back at the two paladins.

“It’s nice that the stars art still the same wherever you are. Well, not the same. You know what I mean.” Lance murmurs, coming to sit on the floor, leaning against a column.

“Yeah,” Keith agrees, coming to sit next to Lance, “I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> its 12:48 am so no this is no edited lmao
> 
> also im working on a multi-chap fic, _Paladin Blue_
> 
> support, as always, is appreciated and loved
> 
> (im sorry for my enthusiasm [or lack thereof], im kinda tired?)
> 
> shoot me a comment! contact me on tumblr (carmailo.tumblr.com), lets be friends!!!! i'd love to talk with any and all of you! (so long as no hate)
> 
> Fun fact: i planned this in the tags section of a tumblr post that im too lazy to find but if you ask on tumblr i can hunt for it and message u the post ;)


End file.
